#voiceover

Adversity

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Greetings from Eau Claire, one day before we’re supposed to be socked with a snowstorm that could bring anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snow. And, for good measure, my snowblower decided to die on me.

 

Unfortunately, these things happen. Snowblowers break, computers crash, mic inputs might not have been turned on, or you sent off a chapter for a completely different book. I’ve had them all happen. And you deal with them. I had to buy a new laptop after the old one died (learned to back up my work better), went talking through almost a whole chapter before realizing that I hadn’t turned the correct mic input on, and had to apologize to a more than understanding client that I sent them the wrong thing.

It happens.

Growing pains are part of life, and definitely part of building a voiceover career. I listen to some bits and pieces of my older audiobooks, just to hear the difference, and MAN. The first one I did sounds like I was speaking into a can of soda (this is proof that the mic is a MAJOR piece of hardware when getting into the business, and a Blue Snoball mic won’t get you professional level work), the next couple sounded less bad, then eventually, the sound was good, but the technique needed some work.

The technique will always need work.

My Achilles’ Heel is my reading speed. I started off reading like I needed to get it done ASAP. Enter Johnny Heller. First thing he told me to do was to SLOW DOWN, BUDDY. The point that I was getting paid by the hour and talking like a rabid jackrabbit made no sense, if I was looking to make money in the industry.

You can tell from the audiobooks I’ve worked on where it was before I trained with Johnny and after. It’s a pretty big difference. And my mistakes went down immensely.

The point of this blog is how you deal with the minor adversities that you have to go through. Sometimes you need to get creative, sometimes you need to get a kick in the pants letting you know that you’re doing it wrong. Us narrator types are fragile souls, so a kick in the pants is more like a light reprimand from a mentor.

Ok, signing off, and hopefully the neighbor kids have room on their schedule to snowblow my driveway.

 

L

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It’s a soggy Thursday afternoon here in Eau Claire, and the temps are starting to drop even further. Going outside is about as enjoyable as having your gums tattooed.

 

I’ve been playing mad scientist again with the software I have, trying to see what boundaries I can push with it while still managing to sound good. It’s a fine line between making your voice sound smoother and thicker, or making it sound like Popeye.

There’s a set of guidelines when recording for Audible and other clients; there’s a certain noise floor, a certain level of normalization, so there’s not a ton you can do while messing with it all, but in the name of experimentation, it’s a lot of tinkering to see if you can get it to sound “perfect” or close to it.

I’ve managed to create a button on my StreamDeck (a touchpad where I can make buttons for shortcuts in the recording software) that does all the mastering work for me, and to anyone reading that’s starting out, I REALLY recommend getting one to help automate part of the post production process.

Been taking interest in seeing how music engineers work, as well. Always had an interest, but as I have little musical skill, other than listening to it, VO post-production always made more sense. But knowing how to mix, engineer, produce not just vocals, but the rest of the sound has always sounded intriguing. Time to binge some YouTube vids on the process.

Ok everyone, kind of a hodgepodge of a blog today, but alas, this is where my brain is at.

 

L

https://www.goettlvoices.com/305-2/

The Busy Times

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Hello everyone, hope it’s a great morning/day/night wherever you are.

 

It’s been a whirlwind of a week, plenty of things to report on. First, got to call my first soccer game–I caught wind of an app called ColorCast, and apparently, you can call the game of your choice from the comfort of your home on your Apple device. I have exactly 1 Apple product that I use, which is an Ipad, and that got me through it. Went well, and due to how well that went, I now have a show on the app on Monday afternoons at 1pmCST. It’s called “Kickin’ It”, and it’ll be about what happened over the weekend in the world of soccer. Looking forward to it! Show begins on October 25, then every following monday.  Follow the link (and currently, only available for Apple products)

https://app.colorca.st/bMSz/TSGen

 

Also have been working out my audio editing skills, there’s been a ton of opportunity out there for getting editing work, what with all the podcasts that are in need of someone qualified. Seeing as Izotope’s RX9 released this past week, it’s going to give me all sorts of fun things to try out and make better audio for anyone who needs it.  Really hoping I have time to work on some old cassettes of mine, there’s plenty of idiotic gold to be mined there.

Also, I’ve been saying for ages that I’m going to work on a podcast someday. Well, I’m currently working on it. Expect my take on Presidential history and why it matters, coming to your headphones soon. Or stereo. Or whatever. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve had a borderline obsessive thing about Presidential history forever, so, hopefully, I can bring a touch of that passion to the podcast.

Finally starting to cool down in this neck of the woods, bringing me to my favorite time of the year, fall, or as I prefer to call it, Cardigan Season. Broke one out today, and promptly was rained on while walking my daughter to school. It’s all good, I have plenty of spares.

 

 

 

 

 

The History

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It’s a wonderful Tuesday here in Eau Claire, the fall here is always excellent–when we get to enjoy it. The past few years, we’ve had summer, 2 weeks of fall weather, then winter. Prefer a longer fall and a shorter winter, but alas, things are what they are.

Funny thing was, I was a huge fan of summer. Was. After spending 2 years in Tempe, AZ, I learned that there’s only so much warm weather I could take, and I had enough. When it hit triple digits in October, I was learning the hard way that hot weather isn’t really my thing at all.  The Mrs. and I moved back to WI in 2012, and from that point forward, I was forever grateful for the Midwestern weather. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose.

Finished with a few projects last week, now looking forward to what the 4th quarter of the year will bring. Audiobooks have been pretty interesting this year, with the variety of titles I’ve been lucky enough to narrate. Still waiting on a call from Stephen King or Walter Isaacson, but nothing on my voicemail yet.

For the audio production nerd in me, RX9 is coming out shortly–what this means in layman’s terms is I have more digital toys to play with. It essentially makes everything sound awesome after I record it. You don’t think I sound this great on my own, do you? But, in all seriousness, it’s a brilliant piece of software, and I’m looking forward to playing with it. Might actually get to work on those old cassettes from when I was a young producer at heart.

Been reaching out to various Presidential museums and libraries to see if they’re in need of my services. They’re all interesting characters (in my opinion, there isn’t a single BORING prez, including Millard Fillmore), and anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about American Presidents and everything about them. The sad thing I’ve found out is there are a few that don’t really have an online or brick and mortar footprint. I know there’s not a ton of people screaming for a Franklin Pierce museum or Zachary Taylor Library, but there are so many stories to tell about how these (for now) guys got here, and how they still affect today’s news.

On that note, time for me to stick my nose into one of my Presidential history books.

 

The Fall

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It’s a crisp September morning, and I’m currently working on finishing a book for Tantor Media, then going to be brainstorming some other ideas that I have for the Goettl Voices biz and see if they’re worthy. Still kicking around the podcast idea, and I think I finally found something that I like that fits my “brand”, so to speak. More on that in future posts.

A week ago, saw the news that Norm MacDonald died. Oof. That was a punch to the gut. This guy was one of my favorite comedians, I listened to his podcast religiously, and quoted him endlessly. Still do. Couldn’t believe he kept his illness secret, but completely understandable. Going to miss his take on, well, anything. Always enjoyed his asides, like when someone would be talking about a reprehensible character, then you’d just hear Norm in the background say “seemed like a nice guy…”.

Been playing around with the RX8 Advanced DAW–man, this thing is magic. I thought the standard did magical things, but this…this is something else. As you all know, I love playing around with recording software, and seeing what I can get it to do. Going to try to take some of those positively ancient sounding wax cylinder recordings, and see if I can work any magic on it. I’m guessing that this is something that AI will be really good at in the future, but for now, this is just fun to try. Recording nerd exercises, if you will.

Newest addiction: Rocketbooks. Those things are so darn handy, it’s insane. Been using them to plan out stuff. I’m not a paid sponsor or anything, but these things are incredibly useful. You can write on the pages, upload them to your email, google drive, one note, etc., and then wipe ’em clean with a wet cloth.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now, stay tuned for further developments…

Audiobooks and The Endurance Factor

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Hi everyone, it’s me with another blog.

Finished an #audiobook a little while back, and have been editing a special project, and it got me thinking about all that goes into putting these things together.

The first one I worked on was an Elon Musk biography. Starting out, I had a Blue Snowball mic. For those not in the know, these things are more for fun than they are for actual work. Next, I recorded in my work office. Not an audiobook work office, but the office where Amanda and I did our day jobs. No sound treatment, other than a blanket over the desk where I had my laptop. No voiceover training, and no acting lessons. Just a pretty straight read. The only thing I had going for me was my audio production skills, but, alas, it’s hard to polish a turd. It sounds exactly like I said it did, like it was recorded in an untreated room.

 

Flash ahead to this past year, where I got the go-ahead from a PenguinRandomHouse engineer to record from my own studio for Seth Rogen’s Yearbook audiobook. I didn’t master that book, obviously, but I am responsible for how I sounded, and I thought I sounded pretty damn good.

The big difference between 2018 and 2021 is immense; I’ve upgraded equipment, had my own studio built (and rebuilt), got some training (from the esteemed Johnny Heller), went to a few online conventions and learned a few new tricks. Everything has built off of everything else.

But you can’t stop.

I still plan on taking more acting classes, visiting more conventions, upgrading equipment as needed (although, unless a U87 is dropped into my lap, I’m more than happy with my Sennheiser 416).  And getting new software is always a blast.

Anyhow, this was just a little insight as to how I got here, and what it took. Going to keep doing what it takes to make sure I can give Johnny Heller and Scott Brick a little competition. Gotta dream big.

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